Today, I want to talk about…YouTube music videos. You might ask yourself “yes, so what?”
Well, I think that YouTube music videos are totally underrated. People do not watch them or, if they do, most times they are seen as the contour to the song or track. As a way to “fill” the video because you know, on YouTube you can’t just upload .mp3, you need to upload a file which includes video.
But here’s the thing: YouTube videos are creative masterpieces. YouTube are short stories or films, usually around 3-4 minute, with a creative story, actors, effects and professionals.
And the reason for that, is quite simple. Having a super good YouTube video will increase the video (and hence the song) plays and popularity. Because first, people will engage and watch the video longer (better audience retention, an important metric) and because they are more likely to remember the song and come back, due to the power of visuals. Or maybe they’ll come back just because they loved the video and the story behind it and…who cares about the song!
And music brands, artists and producers know that. That is why YouTube videos are not just “videos to fill an audio”, they are creative productions with a lot of creativity, professionals and budget behind. They know the importance of the video and they spend lots of time and money into it, maybe even more than the audio itself.
Let’s take Gangam Style as an example, which for a long time was the most played video ever. Yes, the song was unique but what contributed to the video going so viral was the music video and the dancing moves. The visuals!
And to finish it off, let’s speak a bit of facts. Here, a list updated to 2021 of the most expensive music videos ever and, keep in mind that some budgets have not been leaked so I am sure many other add to that list. Yet, with budgets up to 10+ million dollars, which is a lot for a 3 minute clip of a song!!
And notice how all of these are old songs. Now, with the internet being ALL OVER, the importance of music videos has increased even more and so did the budgets surely. I would not be surprised if in the past few years, some videos spent even more than 20+ million dollars.
That is to say, once again, do not underestimate YouTube music videos. They might be short, the main actor might be the track but…there is so much work and money behind them that, proportionally, they are worth of a movie at the theater. And now, I am sure you are curious and want to browse some crazy YouTube music video so…go ahead! 😉